


It's A Whole New World We Live In

by thefluffcat



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, 鬼滅の刃 | Kimetsu no Yaiba (Manga)
Genre: Adventure, All the pillars are gym leaders, Assume inosuke has Swinub on his head unless otherwise stated, Comedy, Everyone is alive in this AU, F/M, Fluff, I have done alot of world building in my head already, Inosuke was raised by wild Swinub in the mountains, It is just a matter of writing it all down, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-01-03 11:09:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21178439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefluffcat/pseuds/thefluffcat
Summary: Tanjiro and Nezuko set off on their first Pokémon journey, but before they can get very far they run into trouble as a boy with a Swinub atop his head challenges them to a battle.





	1. The Start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted a Pokémon AU with cute inotan on the side so here I go taking matters into my own hands! >:)
> 
> There is no specific Pokémon region this is based on, so Pokémon from all gens show up here. 
> 
> (Might change some tags and the summary a bit if I decide to flesh out this AU)

Walking down a bare dirt road leading up the base of a mountain, the hot summer sun is relentless, Tanjiro was starting to wish he had packed more water like his mother suggested before starting his Pokémon journey, but at the time he had deemed it unnecessary added weight to his already heavy backpack. Debating whether to call out his Buizel to make water for him, Tanjiro was suddenly pulled to a halt as his younger sister tugged on his haori sleeve, eager to get his attention. She had insisted on coming along on his journey even though she had no interest in Pokémon battling herself. Instead, she has a dream of opening a bakery for Pokémon.

Turning towards Nezuko curiously his eyes followed her outstretched hand pointing towards the bushes a few feet away.

“What is it Nezuko?”

“Hmmm hmph,” she hummed around the bread she had just taken a bite out of.

Not a second layer, the bushes rustled as brown fur poked slightly above the green leaves, a snuffling sound could be heard as a wiggling pink nose also presented itself.

“Oh!?” Tanjiro pulled out his Pokédex to get more information on this new Pokémon.

It only took a second as the device scanned the brown furry little creature and announced in its computerized voice the Pokémon’s identity; “Swinub. The pig Pokémon. It has a very sensitive nose. It can locate mushrooms, berries, and even hot springs buried under ice.”

“I’m going to try and catch it, unless... you wanted to Nezuko?” He asked his sister.

She shook her head no as she gave a piece of her bread to the Swablu sitting on her shoulder, pecking happily at the crumbs.

Pulling a pokéball out from his bag, he drew his arm back in preparation to throw the device at the Swinub. Unfortunately he was interrupted as a loud screech nearly gave him a heart attack.

“YOU MADE EYE CONTACT WITH ME! THOSE ARE THE RULES OF BATTLE! FIGHT ME!” A wild looking boy jumped out of the bushes, the Swinub he was trying to catch desperately holding onto the dark hair on the boy’s head.

Jumping back in surprise, Tanjiro dropped the pokéball behind him, forgotten for the time being.

“E-excuse me?!” He asked as he took a step in front of his sister to protect her from this weird boy wearing only pants.

“You heard me! Fight me!”

“I’m not looking for a fight right now, so sorry. I didn’t realize that Swinub was yours,” he tried to placate, hands waving in a surrender gesture.

“Eh!? What are you talking about?” Green eyes narrowed in confusion. “You entered our territory so you must want to fight!”

Seemingly done with the conversation, the boy jumped over the bushes rushing at Tanjiro with a battle cry. Before he knew it Swinubs were running out from under every bush in the area, their little legs carrying them far faster than one would think.

Seeing the sea of brown fur quickly approaching, Tanjiro made a split second decision. “Ah! Nezuko! I think we better run!” He shouted while grabbing her hand, pulling her along as they ran back the direction they had came, trying to get away from the stampede of Swinub.

“Hey! Get back here!”

“This isn’t how a Pokémon battle even works!” He yelled over his shoulder as they continued running. “The rule book says it should be one against one, or maybe even two against two. Not whatever this is!”

“I can do a one on one battle!” The boy proclaims behind them.

Oh? So maybe he can be reasoned with? Maybe they don’t have to outrun these tiny Pokémon all the way back to the last town.

Stopping in his tracks, he faces the strange boy who also stops with his miniature army of Swinubs forming a half circle around him.

“I didn’t want to fight but if you really want to that badly, fine! Torkoal I choo-“

Tanjiro was cut off with a loud cough as a solid weight slams into his stomach.

Next to him, Torkoal comes out of it’s pokéball with a flash, the tortoise looking on in confusion at the scene in front of it.

Tanjiro catches his breathe, clutching his torso, to glare at the other boy, “What the hell was that?!”

There is a feral grin on the boy’s face as he proclaims, “I got the first hit in!”

“You aren’t supposed to attack the other trainer yourself!” Tanjiro shouts angrily as he steps back from a kick aimed at his shins.

“Says who? I, Inosuke Hashibira, is king of this mountain, so I make the rules here!”

He honestly can’t help but think, _has this Inosuke guy lost his mind!?_

A few more rapid punches are thrown at Tanjiro who attempts to deflect them with his hand, then elbow in succession. He is on the defense, and has never been more glad that his dad taught him and Nezuko self defense as children.

The flapping of two cottony wings blocks his vision as Swablu swoops between the two, starting to peck at Inosuke. It isn’t a second later that Nezuko enters his line of vision, anger clear on her face, her eyebrows pinched together and a snarl on her lips.

Startled by being suddenly out numbered Inosuke swings his arm hard into Swablu, knocking the bird Pokémon straight into Nezuko’s chest as she stumbles back to catch them.

Filled with rage at his sister and her Pokémon being in danger Tanjiro rushes forward, pulling his upper body back enough to get some momentum as he swings his head forehead directly into the other boy’s skull.

The Swinub let out a squeak of terror as it found itself being thrown off to land on the solid earth, it’s perch falling in line right beside it.

Letting out a deep breath, Tanjiro prepared himself to continue the fight as soon as the other boy stood up, but after a few seconds of rigidly standing with his fists up he realized the there was no movement from the body laying on the ground.

Nezuko crouched down beside this Inosuke boy’s head and scrutinized him a moment before looking back up at her brother. “I think you killed him.”

Tanjiro felt his heart stop for a beat, as his hand flew up to grip the material over his chest. _Oh god what have I done!?_

Reaching out a finger, Nezuko poked Inosuke in the arm, a small groan was released as the boy’s arm twitched in reflex. “Never mind.”

His shoulders sagged as he whined to his sister, “Nezuko, stop that. You are going to give your big brother an actual heart attack one of these days.”

Looking sheepish, Nezuko gave an apologetic smile before giving attention to the furry feeling brushing against her leg. The Swinub that had been settled atop Inosuke’s head was pushing past her to get to him.

Pitiful squeaks were emanating from the small creature as it sniff and snuffled against Inosuke, the other Swinub in the surrounding area letting out similar distressed sounds in response.

Already feeling bad for doing more damage than he had intended, Tanjiro couldn’t handle the cries of the sorrowful Swinub on top of that. “Well, we can’t just leave him in the middle of the road... Help me move him over to the shade of that tree there.”

Grabbing under the armpits while Nezuko grabbed the legs, they shuffled towards the shaded grass beneath the tree, Torkoal slowly meandering behind them while Swablu flew over to perch on a low branch overhead. Gently lowering him down, Tanjiro sits a second on his knees, half bent over the unconscious boy, hovering above his head due to the angle he had been carrying him.

Between all the yelling, running, and fighting Tanjiro hadn’t gotten a good luck at this Inosuke Hashibira beyond the general shirtlessness and blue tipped black hair. Surprisingly, he had a quite fair and feminine looking face, with long dark eyelashes swooping down to brush the top of his cheeks. The words ‘pretty’ and ‘cute’ came to Tanjiro’s mind unbidden, but the pain from the kick in his side made those thoughts irrelevant at the moment.

Not knowing what they should do about their now unconscious opponent, the siblings exchanged a look that involved Nezuko shrugging and Tanjiro biting his lip, both at a loss of what to do.

While they were trying to think up their next move, the main Swinub of the group scuttled over to Inosuke’s head, poking him with their snout. The only reaction was a low groan and scrunching of the eyebrows. Not getting a very good reaction, it turned towards Tanjiro, head-butting his foot.

“Hey now, its okay,” he said while trying to calm the Swinub, hand reaching out in an attempt to pet the Pokémon.

The little brown Pokémon was obviously distressed and kept running in circles between them, only stopping to give a push here or there, wanting some reaction from it’s trainer.

“We should probably wait till he wakes up? To make sure he doesn’t have a concussion?” Nezuko asks unsure.

“Yeah I think that would be best,” Tanjiro nods. He would feel really bad if they left this guy to fend for himself, especially if he gave him a serious head injury...

Tanjiro shrugs off his green checkered Haori, starting to fold it up to make a makeshift pillow to put under Inosuke’s head.

A beat of silence passes as he slowly puts the pillow in place, before Nezuko stifles a laugh, “Pfft your thick head almost puts a Cranidos to shame.”

Face feeling hot in embarrassment Tanjiro glares at his sister, “This was an accident! I didn’t mean to knock him out... though that did stop his rampage.”

“Hopefully he will be more reasonable once he wakes up.”

“Yeah, I hope so.”

— — — — — — — — — — 

He was not.

“Fight me!” Inosuke yelled, while placing the Swinub back on his head as if it belonged there.

“I said no! Trainers are not suppose to physically fight each other!”

“Then you, little girl!” Inosuke turned his attention towards Nezuko, pointing a finger at her. “Fight me!”

Pointing a finger towards her own chest as if questioning if she was indeed the little girl he was challenging, Nezuko shook her head no in response.

The ‘conversation’, if it could be called that, continued on like that for a few minutes until Nezuko started sharing her baguette she packed with the feral boy. Having something else to occupy himself with, the string of verbal challenges died down and turned to munching sounds, as he loudly chomped into the bread.

This gave Tanjiro an opportunity to explain to the other boy about gym battles, their Pokémon verses Pokémon structure, and how you can win badges to show your victories across the country.

It was hard to tell if Inosuke was actually absorbing any of this information through the inhaling of his bread, but after his last bite he looked up at Tanjiro with a fire in his eyes, “Then I’ll win more gym badges than you and prove I’m the best!”

“I mean... I suppose that is the point of collecting them,” Tanjiro sighed, grateful Inosuke didn’t want to fight him one on one anymore. “And once you have all those badges you can enter the nationwide Pokémon league.”

“ALRIGHT! Let’s get going!”

“Y-you’re coming with us?” Nezuko looked somewhat concerned at the idea, seeing as he had just been attacking them only a few hours ago.

“Of course I am. I need you to lead me to these gyms,” Inosuke crossed his arms in annoyance at the question, as if there would be any other answer.

“Do you... even have any Pokémon to battle with?” Tanjiro hesitantly asked, not seeing anywhere the boy could be storing Pokéballs, and doubting the Swinub could do much in battle.

“Heh. It’s fine, I’ll catch some on the way!”

Tanjiro and his sister exchanged a look between each other, _this isn’t going to end well._

— — — — — — — — — —

It had only been a few days so far and Tanjiro was starting to regret agreeing to travel with Inosuke.

This was the third Pokémon he had held the other boy back from physically fighting in the past 2 days. No matter how many times he yelled at Inosuke that he needed to use a Pokéball he insisted on running after the Pokémon himself. Tanjiro was even nice enough to give Inosuke a few Pokéballs to keep, _what a waste._

Starting to set up camp for the evening, Tanjiro unrolled his sleeping bag, shaking out any loose debris. He went to turn to Inosuke, hoping to ask him to collect some firewood before it got dark, but he was nowhere to be found.

“Nezuko did you see where Inosuke went off to?”

His sister stopped unrolling her own sleeping bag to take a look around the clearing as well. Not seeing Inosuke nor Swinub, she gave a shrug of the shoulders in response.

“I’ll be right back,” Tanjiro sighed, heading back the way they came. He followed the rough dirt path through the forest, a few Caterpie scuttling up the trees to his left, but besides that all was quiet.

That is, until a loud screech could be heard echoing through the trees. It didn’t belong to Inosuke, and hopefully he wasn’t the cause for it, but he needed to check if this person was alright. They sounded genuinely afraid.

Taking off in a run towards the direction of the yell, he dodged under branches and jumped over a few fallen trees before bursting into a clearing just in time to see Inosuke cornering another innocent Pokémon.

_Oh no not again._

“Togedemaruuuu!” A blond boy yelled from the other side of the clearing, visibly shaking in his boots.

_And there was the source of that screech a minute ago,_ Tanjiro thought to himself, giving the yellow dressed boy a quick look before preparing to scold Inosuke again.

“Inosuke stop th-“

“AAAAAAAAAAAA” Inosuke yelled a battle cry while punting the small rodent Pokémon with his foot.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAA” The blond screeched while pulling at his own hair. “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!”

The round grey blur of Togedemaru went flying into the bushes with a _whoosh_.

Deciding not to wait for Inosuke to listen to reason, which in reality may never happen, Tanjiro tackled the other boy to the ground. They grappled for a few minutes with Inosuke intermittently growling to be let go, until a shadow fell over them, causing them to pause and look up to the source.

The blond boy looked close to tears as he hugged a terrified Togedemaru close to his chest, glaring down at the two.

The boy inhaled, filling his lungs up with air before releasing an onslaught of accusations. “WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM!? HE COULD HAVE DIED FROM THAT! I COULD HAVE GONE INTO CARDIAC ARREST AND DIED AS WELL! THAT WOULD HAVE MADE YOU A MURDERER! HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF YOU MURDERED SOMEONE IN COLD BLOOD! CURSE YOU! CURSE YOU A THOUSAND TIMES!

Tanjiro, and even Inosuke, were frozen in shock. They could do little else but stare as the blond’s face turned Cherubi red and the veins on his neck looked like they were about to burst.

It was a blessing from Arceus themselves as Nezuko choose that moment to enter the situation. Pushing aside a few branches as she rushed into the clearing with Swablu flying right above her head.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing yelling at my brother like that!” Readying her Pokéball to send out Stufful if she had to.

Upon turning his brown eyes towards Nezuko, the change was almost instantaneous, as the anger dissipated from the blond’s face to be replaced by a dopey love struck expression. The hearts could practically be seen floating around his head.

Faster than Tanjiro was able to blink, the boy was suddenly kneeling on one knee in front of his sister, lightly clasping her hand in his.

“You are by far the cutest girl I’ve ever laid eyes on, please go out with me,” he begged with puppy dog eyes wide and searching for the answer he desired.

Tanjiro felt annoyance creeping up inside him the longer this stranger held his sister’s hand, and he was just about to get between the two when Inosuke rushed past him in a blur, startling him into taking a step back.

“Knock it off piss hair!” Inosuke warned while using his shoulder to ram the other in the gut.

Jogging over to stand slightly in front of his sister, Tanjiro watched with concern as Inosuke started chasing the other boy around the clearing. Luckily for the yellow clad boy he seemed to always be just a few steps faster than Inosuke.

Taking his sister’s hand he felt a warmth bloom inside of him towards Inosuke. _He was protecting her._

Tanjiro was so used to his role of the eldest sibling, always looking out for his younger siblings, always taking responsibility when his parents were out. It was... nice not being the only one looking out for Nezuko.

And it was not just this instance; they had only been traveling together for a few days, but Inosuke quickly latched onto the pair, searching out berries and nuts for them to eat, sometimes scouting ahead on the trail to make sure it’s safe and then doubling back. Sure he was gruff about everything and had a quick temper, but Tanjiro was quickly learning how to handle his feral personality. Inosuke was so unique compared to anyone he had ever met, and honestly, if he didn’t know better he would almost say he was raised in the wild by Pokémon and not people.

Lost in his musing, Tanjiro could feel a smile growing on his face as he watched Inosuke still chasing the stranger.

It’s only with a soft squeeze from Nezuko’s hand that he thinks; _”Oh. Maybe I should stop them...”_

The next time the two ran past he sidestepped right into Inosuke’s path, causing them to almost collide, but knowing Inosuke’s reflexes would have him dodge in time, twisting to the side. Which is exactly what Tanjiro wanted as it gave him the opportunity to wrap his arms around Inosuke’s middle.

Successfully gripping Inosuke from behind, Tanjiro struggled to contain the wild energy. Adjusting his arms a bit he was practically hugging Inosuke to his chest, blue tinted hair whacking him in the face, and the Swinub accidentally kicking him in the process.

“INOSUKE!” He said in a reprimanding yell right into his ear.

Struggling slightly less, but still trying to wiggle free, Inosuke tried to argue his case, “He was scaring your sister Monjiro! Just let me get a few more punches in!”

“It’s Tanjiro!” _Sure they hadn’t known each other that long but his name wasn’t that hard to pick up?_ “And I think he’s learned his lesson now, so you can stop.”

A few feet away, the blond boy was leaning against a tree, gasping to catch his breath. Togedemaru rolling up, making worried squeaks at his master.

Grumbling in his arms, Inosuke slowly stopped moving and accepted that he wouldn’t be going free until he cooperated.

Pleased that Inosuke was finally able to calm down, Tanjiro gave a final squeeze with his arms, hugging Inosuke to his chest, and maybe the hug lasted a few seconds longer than he intended, but Inosuke didn’t say anything so maybe he enjoyed the closeness too?

— — — — — — — — — —

After that incident, the blond boy, Zenitsu, joined their group on their journey to the next town, where the first gym was located.

He claimed it was because he was going that was anyways, and it was less dangerous to travel alone, but Tanjiro thinks it has more to do with his sister if the way Zenitsu always hovered by her side was any indication.

Nezuko had even woken up one morning to find a small bouquet of flowers beside the head of her pillow.

On the other hand, Tanjiro had woken up because somehow acorns had ended up on his pillow, poking into the side of his face uncomfortably.

_They must have fallen from a tree or something._

And since Tanjiro accepted Zenitsu into the group, Inosuke begrudgingly did as well. Although he stole food from Zenitsu’s portion quite often.

It was definitely more chaotic and loud with their two new companions traveling beside them, but Tanjiro thrives from it, being used to having many younger siblings always running around and clamoring for attention. It had almost felt lonely with just him, Nezuko, and their Pokémon of course.

He hopes the two decide to stick around for quite a while. And seeing how little Inosuke seems to know about the Pokémon trainer world he figures it’s mutually beneficial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the most exclamation points I have ever used in a single piece of writing.... Inosuke just yells everything lmao
> 
> Hmu with any headcanons or ideas you have!  
I love discussing hypothetical Pokémon teams for characters ~ 
> 
> Catch me on  
Twitter: [@catnojutsu](https://twitter.com/catnojutsu)  
Tumblr: [small-lizard](http://small-lizard.tumblr.com/)


	2. Gotta Catch 'Em All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The most honest summary I can give of this chapter is "Speedrun of Inosuke getting more Pokémon"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apart of a Christmas gift exchange I made with friends, and they wanted more of this AU!  
So I am here to deliver <3

It was about a weeks worth of travel away from their final destination that Inosuke actually got serious about catching more Pokémon, since Tanjiro kept reminding him he couldn’t go into battle with just Swinub and himself. Inosuke even agreed to using a Pokéball, much to Tanjiro’s delighted surprise.

It felt like Inosuke was finally starting to understand some of the rules Tanjiro had spent the past couple weeks drilling into him.

Although, he still didn’t put his Swinub into a Pokéball, claiming his Pokémon was more comfortable resting on his head. Although he couldn’t imagine how, Inosuke was anything but gentle in his movements.

Quietly humming to himself as he stirred the pot he was using to cook lunch, he heard the rustling of bushes announcing the arrival of who he guessed was Inosuke, since Zenitsu and his sister had left only a few minutes ago to scout for Pokéberries.

He looked up, curious if Inosuke had finally caught a Pokémon.

And he had.

Sort of.

“INOSUKE!” Tanjiro yelled, for probably the hundredth time that week. He could feel his vocal cords starting to strain from all the use.

Because while Inosuke did have a new Pokémon with him, it wasn’t in a Pokéball like it was supposed to be. A short tan Pokémon with a skull on its head was being forcibly dragged by a rope tied around its waist. It’s stubby arms flailing as it growled in anger at the mistreatment.

“Look Kentaro! I caught one!” Inosuke proudly exclaimed, waving a bone in the air with the arm that wasn’t dragging the roped Pokémon. The Swinub atop his head looking somewhat anxious at the situation at hand.

Dropping the ladle into the pot with a splash, Tanjiro ran over to Inosuke, taking the bone roughly from his hand. “Why are you using a rope? What happened to the Pokéball I gave you?!”

Inosuke looked offended at the questions. “I threw it like you told me to.”

“And?”

“And it was stupid and did nothing! I left it in the bushes where it fell,” Inosuke crossed his arms, rope tugging the pissed off Pokémon closer.

“Okay no, here,” Tanjiro sighed putting the bone to the side and grabbing one of his extra Pokéballs from his belt. “You have to take this,” grasping Inosuke’s hand to slap the Pokéball in it, “weaken the Pokémon, and catch it with this ball.”

Tanjiro paused for a moment to let his instructions sink in.

Reaching into his pocket to pull out his Pokédex, he flipped the device open to scan the Pokémon, figuring he should find out more about whatever Pokémon Inosuke had managed to wrangle.

In a computerized voice the Pokédex entry was read: “Cubone. The lonely Pokémon. Cubone pines for the mother it will never see again. Seeing a likeness of its mother in the full moon, it crie-“

A loud thwack assaulted Tanjiro’s ears as Inosuke yelled out a battle cry.

Startled into dropping his Pokédex, Tanjiro feels his eyes bug out as he watches Inosuke slam the Pokémon’s bone over its skull.

“And now this thing!” Inosuke yelled while throwing the Pokéball after his last swing.

A bright light flashed as the Cubone was sucked into the Pokéball, the red button blinking, it wiggled a few times in protest and started to snap open again as the Pokémon tried to escape.

“Oh no you don’t,” Inosuke said as he clamped his hands on both sides of the Pokéball and pushed. Muscles straining as he held the device shut.

“I-Inosuke... that isn’t how-“

But before he could finish his sentence, the Pokéball made a clicking sound and the blinking red light stopped flashing, signifying the successful catch of that Pokémon.

Mouth hanging open in shock, Tanjiro didn’t know how to react to this situation. He had _never_ seen someone catch a Pokémon like that.

“Ah ha! Caught it!” He enthusiastically announced while waving the Pokéball in the air. Swinub giving a victory squeak to accompany its partner.

“Ah... you sure did. Congratulations on your first catch Inosuke,” Tanjiro tried to sound happy for his companion, but his tone came off more bewildered.

_He can never do anything the normal way can he?_

He bent over to pick up his fallen Pokédex, brushing off a few specks of dirt, as he inspected the device to make sure it wasn’t damaged. Turning it over it appeared to be fine so he pocketed it again.

Now that they had completed the task of catching another Pokémon, Tanjiro had to explain the process of training and he was not looking forward to that.

His previous lecture about ‘why we shouldn’t fight Pokémon ourselves’, aka please stop fighting the Pokémon yourself, obviously hadn’t stuck.

Picking the bone back up from where he had dropped it after forcibly catching the Pokémon, Inosuke walked over to the forgotten meal in progress.

“What’s for lunch?” He asked, while peaking into the pot. His interest having quickly shifted from the Pokémon to meal time.

“Fish stew,” Tanjiro answered while trailing behind Inosuke, “but I was missing a few ingredients that Nezuko and Zenitsu were supposed to find for me.”

“I heard my name?” Nezuko asked as she skipped into the clearing with Stuffel waddling a few paces behind with a basket on its back.

“Oh! Just in time. Did you manage to find everything okay?” Tanjiro turned towards his sister with a smile.

“Yup, for the most part, but Zenitsu kinda fell in some mud trying to reach a mushroom for me...” Nezuko trailed off, eyes roaming back to the way she had came.

Zenitsu followed a few seconds later with a squish to his step. Brown mud starting to dry and flake off of his pants and yellow haori. Togedemaru sat on his shoulder in a similar state, and not looking too happy about it.

“Don’t. Say. Anything.” He glared at his companions as they simply stared at him. Making his way over to his bag of supplies to get out extra clothes, Zenitsu left a trail of muddy shoe prints in his wake.

Inosuke let out a snigger of laughter at the state of the other boy. Seeming to find enjoyment in getting a rise out of him.

“Shut up Swinub head!” Zenitsu puffed out in indignation.

“Oi! What’s Swinub got to do with this?! You wanna go? Right now?” Inosuke swung the bone he was still carrying at Zenitsu threateningly. Swinub started puffing up its fur to mimic the aggressive stance of its partner.

Zenitsu flinched away throwing his muddy arms up in defense, “Eek! Why do you have a bone?! Where did you even get that?”

— — — — — — — — — —

Training goes about as well as Tanjiro could hope.

Inosuke spends a good couple of hours trying to get Cubone to even listen to a simple command, and then another half an hour yelling commands that the Pokémon is unable to perform, until they show him the Pokédex entry and explain that Cubone _cannot_ use ice shard.

Inosuke then proceeded to change his training tactic to one on one combat with his Pokémon. Giving Cubone his bone back and using a broken branch himself.

Zenitsu then suggested that he would give a demonstration of how to train your Pokémon, which seemed out of character to Tanjiro at first, but then it made sense when Zenitsu asked Nezuko to be the opponent.

It was hard to tell if Inosuke was actually paying attention or just staring off into space as he watched Togedemaru ran away in terror as Nezuko’s Litten kept trying to slash them.

Inosuke, suddenly seeming to understand battling, ordered his Cubone to attack Togedemaru as well. To which Zenitsu frantically returned the mouse Pokémon to their Pokéball.

This mess ended in a bush catching on fire after Cubone accidentally stepped on Litten’s tail, causing a spatter of embers to be launched out of their mouth.

In an attempt to be helpful, Inosuke empties out all of their drinking water to put out the flames. Too quick for Tanjiro to call out his Wooper and deal with the fire in a more efficient way.

With a sigh, Tanjiro volunteers to refill their flasks, but is ignored as Inosuke and Zenitsu continue to bicker. He lets Nezuko know he’ll be back in a bit and goes off on his own, well not alone per se, Wooper was with him. Wooper had a special knack for tracking down sources of water, which made them the perfect partner for this task.

Walking down the forest trail behind Wooper he matched the slow plopping pace of the water type Pokémon as it opened it mouth wide, tasting the air for the scent of water. The clanking of the flasks hitting each other as they swung echoed through the trees with each movement.

The Pokémon paused in its steps near a large mossy rock, tail slapping the grass beneath it in excitement.

“What is it girl? Did you find some water?” Tanjiro asked while crouching down to be closer to the Pokémon’s height.

Mouth forming a large “O” shape, Wooper let out a few happy whoops before waddling at a fast pace downhill from the rock.

“Sounds like a yes to me,” he said while giving a small chuckle, jogging to follow her to their destination.

Dodging around some fallen trees and the occasional rock, the steady decline of the hill becomes steeper and steeper, until they reach a dirt ledge overhanging a river. The height wasn't too bad, but there wasn't much room between the top of the overhang and the river itself. So he walks along the top until the river bank gets wide enough to jump down onto without getting his shoes wet.

Wooper trails after him, waiting at the top of the ledge till Tanjiro turns around and opens his arms up, allowing the Pokémon to jump into his embrace before being set down.

Excited about the water, Wooper wastes no time in running over and diving into the shallows. The Pokémon swims back to the surface and playfully squirts water from its mouth up into the air.

Kneeling down beside the stream, Tanjiro dips the flasks into the water, holding it under until the bubbles stop and the canister is full. Setting that one down and moving onto the next.

Once he finished putting the cap on the last flask to fill he looked up to see what Wooper was up to, but to his surprise the blue Pokémon was no longer splashing in the shallows.

“Wooper,” Tanjiro called out, standing up to get a better look of the area.

Figuring she had swam further upstream Tanjiro walked along the riverbank, keeping an eye out for the light blue of his Pokémon bobbing amongst the current.

The sound of a few loud slaps against water startles him into picking up his pace as he jogs around a bend in the river.

_That definitely was the sound of Wooper slapping her tail._

Eyes quickly scanning the other side of the riverbank he spots his Pokémon with her wide smile and beady eyes turned towards a Pokémon he had never seen before. It was small, less than a foot in height, with green leaves covering its back. As it turned towards him, startled at his sudden appearance, he saw a bright pink flower growing next to its head.

Standing as still as possible to try and not spook the little creature, Tanjiro makes eye contact with the Pokémon across the water, it’s little nose twitching nervously. There is a strange intelligence in its gaze that he can’t quite decipher, but it draws him in.

He slowly goes to pull out his Pokédex but the slight movement of his arm causes the flasks to clank against each other. The reaction is immediate, little white legs scurry across the gravel and dirt and into the bushes, out of sight.

Wooper is left with a confused expression on her face, most likely wondering why her new friend had left in such a hurry.

“I wonder... what that Pokémon was...” Tanjiro mused to himself, jumping a bit as something wet touched his feet. Looking down he saw that Wooper had swum across the river and was now gazing up at him with a questioning head tilt, mouth open wide.

“It’s probably not important, let’s head back,” he said while turning towards the way they had come, giving one more glance back to the bushes the Pokémon had disappeared into.

Making his way back up the hill, while lugging the water filled canisters, was more strenuous than the way down to the stream, but it was still quicker than before since he knew the way now instead of wandering after Wooper.

Hearing the voices of his friends, he picked up his pace, jogging until they were within sight, and it only took a moment till they noticed him.

Nezuko waved a greeting from her perch atop a rock, Litten sitting in her lap, letting out a wide yawn.

“What took you so long?” Inosuke jumped up from doing what looked like pushups. “We thought maybe you fell into a Beedril nest or something.”

“I ran into this Pokémon I had never seen before! Not even in those encyclopedias they make us look over in grade school,” Tanjiro excitedly explained.

“Oh! Oh! What did it look like?” Ever curious, Nezuko came over, holding Litten in her arms.

“Um, well, it was maybe this small,” he held out his hands a few inches apart in demonstration, “and it ...here lemme just-“

He walked over to the bushes to snap off a dead branch, kicking a patch of dirt to smooth it out and give him room to draw.

“It was green and spiky-“ Tanjiro drew a few up and down lines in the dirt with the stick. “it looked kinda like... this,” making a few more swishes and dots, he laid down the stick next to him, looking towards the others for a reaction.

Zenitsu squinted at the drawing in confusion, “I have no clue what that’s supposed to be.”

“Is it... a Wooloo?” Nezuko asked.

“Maybe a Bidoof?” Zenitsu tried.

“No! I said it was green...” Tanjiro deflated a bit at their reactions.

“Looks like a monster,” Inosuke states, nodding his head like he had just added something wise to the conversation.

Tanjiro hung his head in defeat.

Drawing it out was not going to work. Even though his depiction of the Pokémon was spot on, it was a low chance to begin with that they would recognize it, given he hadn’t either.

“Why didn’t you just use your Pokédeck or whatever? I thought that thing was supposed to be all knowing,” Inosuke questioned.

“It’s Poké_dex_, and I did, but it ran away before I could scan it...” Tanjiro sighed.

“Well that sucks, but if it’s a pipsqueak like you said, you should try to catch something cooler anyways.” Inosuke threw his arms behind his head and walked away, having grown bored of the drawing.

“Hmm maybe we’ll run into it again,” Nezuko mused, always being optimistic.

“Yeah, maybe,” Tanjiro agreed, feeling weirdly reluctant to drop the topic, but doing so anyways as the rest of them started to wander back to their supplies, packing up the newly refilled water flasks and zipping up bags in preparation to head out.

The sun was high up in the clear blue sky, and they could still get in more travel time before dinner.

— — — — — — — — — —

“Torkoal use flame thrower.” Tanjiro encouraged while pointing at the fire pit in front of them.

The tortoise was still for a moment, staring at the outstretched finger for longer than necessary, most likely processing the command, before letting out a breath of flame right over the wood kindling.

Tanjiro fondly patted the top of Torkoal’s head as the Pokémon set the pile of wood alight in preparation for dinner. “There we go. Thank you.”

Torkoal may not be fastest Pokémon, but he was very loyal and hardworking ever since Tanjiro had gotten him as a child. Helping to deliver bread while still keeping it just as warm as when it first came out of the oven.

Returning Torkoal to it's Pokéball he headed over to their supplies, he took out some potatoes to peel before the others got back with more wood and materials. But they were quicker in their return than he thought, because he had only gotten through a few of the potatoes before he heard his sister’s voice talking to what sounded like Zenitsu, which was confirmed as bright yellow came into view.

Recently whenever Nezuko volunteered to search for supplies Zenitsu was always a second behind.

“I got some more wood for the fire,” Zenitsu said while approaching the fire, balancing a few logs on his arms. His Starly, whom he nicknamed Chuntaro, flew above him with a twig in her beak.

“And I filled the pot with some water from the stream over there,” Nezuko said, a determined look on her face, as her arms struggled to carry the now heavy silver pot.

“Ah, perfect! Thank you so much you guys,” he rushed over to take the pot from Nezuko so she wouldn’t have to carry it even further, glancing behind the two as he hefted it further into his grip. “Where’s Inosuke? Didn’t he go with you two?”

He walked back towards the small fire they had already going and hung it upon the hook that hung over the flame.

Zenitsu followed close behind, putting the wood down a few feet from the fire, letting out an annoyed huff, “That crazy guy ran off the second we started doing ‘boring stuff’ as he put it. No clue where he’s at.”

Zenitsu didn’t seem very bothered by Inosuke running off, but Tanjiro couldn’t help but feel worry. Inosuke might run into a Pokémon he can’t handle... or get lost and not be able to find them again or-

“If he isn’t back by the time dinner is done I suppose we have to go look for him,” Nezuko suggested, knowing how her brother worried about everything.

“Until then let’s get started, I’m staaarvinnng,” Zenitsu drew out the last word into a whine, Chuntaro landing to place her twig onto the edge of the fire, tilting her head to stare at her master.

“Okay... I guess..” he agreed reluctantly. “I left off with peeling the pota-“

“I FOUND DINNER!” Inosuke burst through the bushes with a flurry of leaves, startling everyone around the campfire.

In the blink of an eye Inosuke was by the fire, and in a blur launched a blue and grey object into the lightly bubbling water of the pot, causing a large splash that almost hits Chuntaro, leaving her chirping in terror.

“Ah...” Tanjiro froze in place, watching the pot swing back and forth from the momentum of the projectile that had been flung into the water.

“Um... Inosuke... what was that..?” Zenitsu stared at the pot with trepidation.

“Dinner!” Inosuke placed his hands on his hips with a proud look on his face, Swinub giving a happy snort as air puffed out of its snout.

The three of them silently walked closer to the pot, peering down into the water. It took a second to process what it was before Zenitsu let out a cry, “INOSUKE THAT'S AN EGG!”

“Yeah? That’s a type of food.”

Nezuko began kicking dirt to put out the fire, while Tanjiro, panicking, reached into the water to pull out the egg.

It was hot but not unbearably so, it’s a good thing the water had not gotten the chance to boil yet. He carefully laid the egg down onto the dirt, running his hands over it to check for cracks in the shell.

Tanjiro let out a sigh as he didn’t find anything wrong with the exterior, but before he let go he felt a small wiggle from within, the grey and blue egg vibrating from the life inside.

He blinked at it owlishly as a small white horn poked through the shell, a crackling sound could be heard as the small opening created started to branch out with spider web fissures.

The cracking of the egg was noticed by Inosuke and Zenitsu over their continuous arguing, which caused their accusations to change subject matter.

“Look what you did you dumb mountain ruffian! You cracked the egg! What if the mother comes after us?!”

“HAH? Me?! It was Gonpachiro over there! He took it out of the water too early!”

“He was trying to save the egg from your idiocy!”

Apparently with that last comment Inosuke had had enough and swung his fist at Zenitsu, who yelped in terror as he jumped away. His bravado all gone once the stand off changed from verbal to physical.

“Tanjiiiroooo protect meeee,” Zenitsu begged as he ran to place Tanjiro between himself and Inosuke.

Tanjiro knew a disappointed frown covered his face as Inosuke came to a halt in front of him. He could sometimes deescalate these situations depending on the mood Inosuke was in, but he didn’t really want to resort to sitting on the other boy’s back until his calmed down like last time.

“Don’t use Tantaro as shield you coward! You can’t just call me a Rufflet and run!”

“I called you a ruffian! Not a Rufflet!”

“Using insults I don’t understand just gets me more fired up,” Inosuke took another menacing step forward.

_”Inosuke,”_ Tanjiro said in a warning tone, standing up from his position on the ground with the egg.

“Why are you taking his side?” Inosuke seemed genuinely offended at this.

Tanjiro closed his eyes to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration, “I’m not taking sides Inosuke I’m-“ opening his eyes back up he was greeted with the sight of Inosuke holding the egg above his head in preparation to hurl it at Zenitsu.

_Can’t leave him alone for the split second it takes me to close my eyes._

Reaching forward to try and stop the egg from flying, he stopped dead in his tracks as a loud crunch was heard. A blue and silver smooth head busting out of the shell to grip onto Inosuke’s hand with a beak shaped mouth. Red eyes angrily glare at the appendage it is gripped onto.

Using his free arm, Inosuke starts pushing against the Pokémon, “Let! Go!” He gives a violent shake of his arm. In fear of falling off, Swinub grips on tighter to Inosuke’s hair, snout twitching in irritation.

“Ah, hold still,” Tanjiro rushes over to grab the Pokémon by its torso, heels digging into the dirt as he pulls back. He wasn't sure of the exact species of Pokémon, but it looked like a breed of dinosaur.

The Pokémon let’s out angry garbled sounds as it tries to kick Tanjiro’s arms off. Tanjiro grunts as its foot makes contact with his chest, but refuses to let go. He’s nothing if not stubborn.

Tired of getting jostled, Swinub let’s out an angered squeak and blasts a strong wind of icy air at the offending Pokémon.

Startled into letting go as frost builds upon its head, the Pokémon falls to the ground, landing ungraciously in a heap at their feet.

Scrambling to stand back up, the Pokémon starts to run away on it’s two hind legs, letting out a tiny roar. Tanjiro fully believes this incident is over until the Pokémon turns around and widens its stance, scraping its one leg back into the dirt. He knew that stance. It was a fighting stance. The exact same as the one Inosuke was getting into right now.

“Oh so you still wanna go?!” Inosuke challenges, taking a menacing step forward.

“Inosuke don’t rile them up, it’s just a baby,” Tanjiro pleads, trying to deescalate the situation.

“Yeah. A baby that bit my hand.”

“It was probably just scared...” Tanjiro trails off looking at the not at all scared Pokémon. If anything the Pokémon looked ... excited? As if this was a game to it.

“Scared by your obnoxiously loud voice and blood thirsty expression!” Zenitsu chimes in.

Inosuke, ignoring his friends, starts charging at the Pokémon with a battle cry.

Tanjiro goes to stop him, preparing to tackle him to the ground this time, but a loud roar that shakes the leaves has both of them stopping in their tracks, causing him to bump into Inosuke a bit. They wip their heads back and forth, trying to tell where the sound had come from.

“W-What was that?!” Zenitsu squeaks, legs shaking in fear as Chuntaro, from atop his shoulder, flaps her wings frantically.

All four of them start scooting closer to each other, watching the tree line for any sign of movement.

He feels something bump against his leg, and Tanjiro looks down to see the Pokémon lightly head-butting him. Not liking that the attention was off of them, it let out a few belting cries.

It was at that moment a large grey and blue Pokémon crashes through the bushes, uprooting a small tree as it uses the top of its head to thrash the foliage out of the way. The Pokémon swinging it’s head back and forth, white horns glistening in the sunlight.

Simultaneously screaming in terror they turn to run away, Tanjiro grabbing ahold of Nezuko’s arm and pulling her along.

He looks back to make sure Inosuke is following, and is relieved to see that for once Inosuke is listening to the “flight” part of his brain instead of the “fight” part.

Making a sharp turn around a large tree to change directions, he hears a loud crack of breaking wood from behind. Most likely the Pokémon having rammed into a tree, unable to turn as fast.

Out of the corner of his eye he sees Nezuko pulling out her Pokédex. Trying to point it behind her while also running.

“Nezuko that isn’t important right now,” Tanjiro chides through deep breaths.

“It is! What if the dex tells us something important,” she argues back.

The Pokédex dings as it finally picks up on the rampaging Pokémon. Reading out the entry information in the now familiar robotic voice. “Rampardos. The evolution of Cranidos. This ancient Pokémon used headbutts skillfully. It’s brain was really small, so some theories suggest that it’s stupidity led to its extinction.”

“That sure doesn’t look extinct to me!” Zenitsu complained, picking up his pace as the Rampardos knocked over a small tree.

“Well at least we know it’s stupid as shit”, Inosuke chimed in, jumping over a fallen log in his path.

As Tanjiro prayed that Zenitsu wouldn’t jab back, pointing out Inosuke’s own intelligence, he spotted a rope bridge overhanging a river at the bottom of the slope they were on.

Yelling out Inosuke’s name to get his attention, now at the front of the group, Tanjiro pointed down towards the bridge he had spotted.

“Right!” Inosuke yelled as he quickly changed directions, trusting in Tanjiro’s judgment.

Trying to carefully run down the hill, while also going as fast as possible, they made it to the bridge with only several feet to spare between them and the Rampardos.

Halfway across the bridge, Tanjiro calls out his Torkoal, summoning the Pokémon to the grass on the side they are running towards.

The second they get fully across he yells out the command, “Torkoal! Use Flamethrower!”

The tortoise sees the angry Pokémon rapidly approaching from the other side and wastes no time in spraying a large blast of fire from its mouth.

The ropes holding the bridge up quickly turn to ash under the burning flames, and the wooden boards fall into the river below.

Unable to stop in time, the Rampardos runs right off the edge into the water. The river’s strong current ends up carrying the Pokémon downstream, until it is able to get its feet under itself again, and drag itself onto the riverbank.

From the distance they are at, Tanjiro can just make out the grey and blue Pokémon shaking water off its body. It looks back at them a moment and then runs into the forest, out of sight.

“Oh thank Arceus,” Zenitsu flops down onto the ground, hand over his still heavily breathing chest.

Taking a few deep gulps of air, Tanjiro starts to slowly regulate his breathing. The pounding of his heart returning to its regular beat, and he no longer hears it booming in his ears.

Looking up, he sees Nezuko patting Torkoal’s head in a job well done, the fire Pokémon leaning into the touch. Torkoal had always been very fond of his sister since she would sneak them extra Poképuffs after dinner.

And that leaves... Inosuke, who ... is nowhere in sight.

Tanjiro feels his stomach drop in dread, _was Inosuke on the bridge and he just didn’t notice!? No, no, he had been ahead of him for sure. Then where did he go?!_

“Inosuke!?” He calls out with worry in his voice.

Both Nezuko and Zenitsu take in their Inosuke-less surroundings as well. Nezuko being the closest to the edge of the ravine, goes to peak over the side.

“Inosuke!” Tanjiro tries calling again, this time with his hands cupped around his mouth.

“Quit your yelling Tantaro I’m right here,” Inosuke’s voice comes from the bushes, followed by a few scuffle sounds.

“Inosuke what are you doing?” He asks in his reprimanding tone, pushing aside the branches of the bush. Relieved that the other boy was fine.

The sight that greets him is not one he was expecting; the baby that had caused this whole mess, Crandios, was right there pulling on Inosuke’s pant leg making bleating noises.

“Oh no, it got separated from its mom again,” Nezuko comments as she peaks over Tanjiro’s shoulder to see what’s going on. “We have to go back.”

Zenitsu looked like he wanted to argue against it, but his _need_ to agree with Nezuko one hundred percent of the time won out, so he just ended up looking constipated and keeping silent.

“We have to go back for some of our supplies actually...” Tanjiro trails off, not liking the idea of returning to that side of the river either, but they needed their backpacks and sleeping bags.

“Let’s just be quick about it so the mom doesn’t find us again,” Inosuke grunts as he picks up the Cranidos in his arms.

The little Pokémon let’s out a startled sound as it is lifted off the ground, but surprisingly doesn’t fight back that much, just swinging it’s back legs in the open air.

They manage to make it back to camp with no trouble, having crossed the river in the shallows downstream, and they are able to pack up all of their stuff in record time.

The only trouble that Tanjiro didn’t predict was that Cranidos kept following them each time they started to walk away.

“Stay.” Inosuke commanded.

The Cranidos took a couple steps forward, blinking up at him in confusion.

“Stay!”

A few more steps.

“Stay! Stupid!”

“Inosuke, try giving it food to distract it while we make our escape,” Nezuko suggests, handing him a container of dry Pokéfood from her backpack.

Inosuke pours maybe more food than he needs to onto the ground in front of Cranidos, who starts smelling the pellets curiously.

As the Pokémon starts nibbling the food Tanjiro puts his finger up to his mouth in the shushing motion, waving for them to move out.

It’s only when they make it a far enough distance away that they start to relax.

“Do you think the mother will come back?” Nezuko asks worriedly.

“I’m sure she will!” Zenitsu flutters around Nezuko, trying to reassure her. “Without a doubt! New mothers get worried so easily over their babies.”

“Oh yeah? If she worries so much then why did she leave her egg in the middle of the dead grass?” Inosuke argues.

Tanjiro looks over his shoulder as he replies to Inosuke stomping behind the group, “That dead grass might have been her nest, you shouldn’t just take anything you ... find...” he trails off eyes drifting downward to the shadowed figure walking in Inosuke’s steps.

Stopping in his tracks, the rest of the group follows suit.

Nezuko and Zenitsu tracking his gaze to behind Inosuke, who is looking back in confusion at the sudden attention.

Swinub shuffles to turn around on top of Inosuke’s head to look down at their little stalker.

Zenitsu grabs at his hair in frustration, “Gah! It’s still following us!”

Realizing it had been caught, Cranidos chooses that moment to headbutt Inosuke in the leg.

“Hey!” Inosuke goes to grab the Pokémon, holding it up in the air from underneath it’s arms, with a scowl on his face.

Thinking he might have to grab the Pokémon away from him, Tanjiro starts forward, “Inosuke-“

“I think the little guy likes me!” Inosuke’s scowl (which may have been his thinking face?) turns into a feral grin. “I’ll keep them.”

He shuffles the Cranidos so it’s carried in the crook of one arm. The Pokémon hanging there without a care in the world. How it went from trying to challenge them to a fight to... this, he couldn’t figure out. But considering Inosuke’s idea of a good time is fighting, maybe this species is similar.

“You can’t just keep them...” Tanjiro weakly tries to argue.

“Why not? It’s just like catching any other Pokémon. Plus this one isn’t a dick like Cubone is.”

“It needs its mother.” Intentionally dodging the comment about Cubone, as Tanjiro didn’t want to start a second argument about how Cubone was justifiably upset about its rough capture.

“Psh, I’m it’s new mom now,” Inosuke jabs his thumb to his chest.

Zenitsu let’s out a snort. “Nothing about you is motherly in the slightest.”

“Take that back! I’m plenty strong! My mom was as big as that tree over there and could smash boulders with her teeth.”

Zenitsu stares blankly at the tree a good three to four feet taller than them, processing this information, before bursting out.

“She _what?!”_

— — — — — — — — — —

— — — — — — — — — —

BONUS:

Me and my friends drawing Shaymin (yep! that's the Pokémon that Tanjiro saw) from memory.

So you can just imagine his drawing as something similar to these lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think about Tanjiro's [cat drawings](https://twitter.com/tanjirouo/status/1201596685866147842) almost daily... so I wanted to reference it in some way lmao


	3. The Water Wheel Gym

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plot actually starts as they enter town to fight their first gym battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My friends keep bribing me to write more of this AU, so I have another chapter for everyone!
> 
> Damn,,, now that there's actual plot I guess I have to change the status of this fic from completed to ongoing huh

Entering town for the first time with Inosuke was... interesting to say the least. 

As soon as they crossed the bridge that connected to the stone sidewalks of the town, Inosuke was glued to Tanjiro like a Remoraid to a Mantine. Inosuke’s grip on his haori was death tight as he peaked around Tanjiro’s shoulder at all the new sights and sounds. 

He wouldn’t use the word scared to describe Inosuke’s actions, but apprehensive and curious. If he had really grown up in the mountains like he said he did, then this was a lot to take in at once. 

As they made their way down the crowded sidewalk to get to the center of the town Tanjiro felt the constant backwards tug letting him know that Inosuke was only a couple of steps behind. _At least he didn’t have to worry about losing him in the crowd._ And in all honesty it was kinda cute to see the usually loud and gruff boy quiet as he trailed after him. 

Coming up to an intersection, the crowd came to a collective halt as cars passed by on the street. 

“What the hell are those?” Inosuke growled as he finally came out from behind Tanjiro to point at the offending vehicles. 

Zenitsu gave him a look, “Have you never seen a car before? Wait... Did you _actually_ never leave the mountains? I thought you were just exaggerating.”

“I had food, water, and shelter there, why would I come to this smelly place? There’s too many people here. Not enough room to move.”

And as if to enunciate his point, he swung an arm out bumping the lady next to him. She gave them a sour look as Tanjiro apologized for them, tugging Inosuke along as the light changed colors and they could cross. 

“You have to be careful Inosuke,” Tanjiro scolded.

“Yeah. Yeah.” 

He sounded flippant, but as soon as the crowd began to move around them again he felt a tug, signifying Inosuke was holding on again. 

They had only made it a block further when his sister stopped at the window of a Poké accessory store. Her face glued to the glass as she eyed the sparkly ribbons and hats. 

“Can we go in? Can we?” She turned towards her brother with big pleading eyes. “That bow would look adorable on Litten.”

Knowing how long his sister took in these stores Tanjiro was hesitant to agree, he really wanted to check in at the Pokémon center before noon so he could sign up for an afternoon match at the Water Wheel Gym. But really when has he ever said no to Nezuko? 

“Alright... we can go inside, but no more than half an hour.” 

“Yay!” She happily exclaimed as she pushed open the store’s door with a jingle of a bell. 

Looking around, the store had quite an extensive collection of accessories, with a whole aisle being dedicated to just Pokémon hats alone. Some sparkling with bedazzled gems and others exploding with fake flowers sewed into the fabric. 

Nezuko had taken out her Pokémon at some point and was eagerly taking pictures of different hats on Litten, who looked annoyed at the whole ordeal, swatting at a loose ribbon of the current hat. 

Tanjiro thumbed the fabric of a few hats, not really interested in purchasing anything, but glancing the more ornate ones over to have something to do. 

He wandered over to the next aisle, which looked to be shelves of collars and ribbons to be worn around a Pokémon’s neck. There was a trainer already there, a young girl with black hair, tying a pink band with sakura flowers popping out around the neck of their fluttering jellyfish Pokémon. She had a dreamy far off look in her blue eyes as she watched the Pokémon float a few circles in the aisle, the little decretive flowers bouncing along with its up and down motions. 

It was a cute scene, and admittedly was temping Tanjiro to take out his own Pokémon for the fun of it. But before he got the chance to, Nezuko came rushing over holding Swinub in her arms. 

“Brother back me up! Tell Inosuke that Swinub looks adorable in this hat.” 

Somehow his sister had swiped the little Pokémon from atop Inosuke’s head, and clipped a black mini top hat into their shaggy fur. Swinub’s tiny legs pawed at the air, obviously not wanting to be apart of this. 

“Swinub doesn’t wanna wear that stupid crap,” Inosuke argued as he stepped right next to Nezuko. “Give ‘em back.”

Nezuko pouted, puffing up her cheeks in annoyance, but knowing most arguments with Inosuke go nowhere she started to hand the swine Pokémon back to their owner. 

But Swinub had other ideas as it wiggled free of her grasp and plopped to the tile floor. The second their little legs hit the ground they were off, a blur of brown as they dashed right between Tanjiro’s legs and down the aisle. Its movements erratic and swaying as it tried to throw the clipped on hat off its fur. 

The girl from the ribbon aisle started to round the corner with her Pokémon only to pull the jellyfish back as Swinub made their way past. “Oh!? Frillish look out.” 

Frillish made a questioning bubble sound as it watched the other Pokémon head for the door that was now being opened by a boy with light pink hair and a checkered t-shirt. He opened his mouth to say something to the girl, but was startled into trying to dodge the oncoming Swinub. 

Blinking in confusion, the boy stood in the open doorway as Inosuke and Tanjiro rushed out as well. 

Tanjiro could just make out Nezuko apologizing to the sales clerk as he ran out onto the sidewalk, looking both ways to see which way Swinub has went. 

The crowd was still heavily flowing both ways, which made it hard to see anything moving on the ground. He turned to Inosuke to ask what the other boy wanted to do, but the words died on Tanjiro’s lips as he took in the expression on his face. 

Inosuke looked... panicked? 

His wide green eyes frantically scanning the flowing crowd, as he whipped his head around in search of his partner. Inosuke’s posture was stiff as his hands clenched into tight fists at his side. 

Tanjiro reached out a gentle hand as he lightly placed it on the other boy’s shoulder. Inosuke immediately stiffened under the touch, but didn’t pull away as he turned towards him with a pleading look in his eyes. He can’t imagine how lost he must be feeling right now, being in a new overwhelming environment that he knew nothing about, with his closest companion missing. 

“Don’t worry, we’ll find him!” Tanjiro encouraged with a smile that hopefully didn’t come off as fake bravado. 

The shift in Inosuke’s demeanor was instantaneous; any soft emotions were quickly buried beneath a determined brow, “Well obviously we will!” He paused as he glanced away from Tanjiro, muttering his next words. “And I’m not worried... Swinub is tough enough to survive any stupid human city.”

“Of course,” Tanjiro easily agreed, noting how quickly Inosuke had covered up his panic with his usual boisterousness. Growing up in the unforgiving mountains, it made sense that he had learned to not show ‘weakness’ in front of others. 

Tanjiro just hoped that one day Inosuke would feel safe enough to be open with him no matter the type of emotions he was going through. 

But dealing with emotional baggage was something for another day, as the more time they wasted the further Swinub could be getting from them. 

With that in mind Tanjiro pushed them into action, “I’m going to go that way, and you’ll head the other direction, Swinub couldn’t have gotten that far. We won’t lose them.”

Making eye contact with Inosuke, the other boy smiled with a determined look in his eyes, “Yeah! Meet ya back here!”

Sprinting in opposite directions of each other Tanjiro kept a keen eye out for a blur of brown fur on the ground, glancing past a multitude of shoes and smaller Pokémon keeping up with the longer strides of their owners. At one point he thought he saw Swinub, but the brown fur belonged to a scruffy Eevee that was startled by the sudden attention. Quickly apologizing for startling the Pokémon he kept weaving his way between the other pedestrians on the sidewalk, some giving him dirty looks as he grazed their coats or dresses in his hurry. He couldn’t help but spare a moment to picture Inosuke most likely not being as careful when pushing past others on the sidewalk. Hopefully he wouldn’t wind up in trouble. 

After clearing a few blocks with no Swinub in site the crowds started to thin out as he went further away from the center of town. This was good because he didn’t have to worry about running into people as much, but also worrisome that he hadn’t seen hair nor snout of the Pokémon yet. 

_Maybe Inosuke had went the right way after all and found Swinub already..._

Slowing to a fast walk, his legs starting to feel the burn now that the initial adrenaline rush had worn off, Tanjiro took a few deep breaths as he took in surroundings. 

This area of town wasn’t as flashy and commercialized as the part they had come from. A few people were here and there on the sidewalks, many on their way to work, and across the street a bus was loading up another round of passengers. 

A Murkrow let out a caw from its perch atop one of the brick buildings lining the streets, and a few more landed beside it, peering down at something on the sidewalk. 

He watched as they flew to the ground, pecking at a small object, one picking it up in its beak and shaking it. A fight started between a couple of the birds as they tried to win back the prize. 

Tanjiro let out a gasp as he recognized that object as the small hat pin Swinub had been wearing. 

Rushing over to the Murkrow he shushed them away, the bird currently holding the hat was startled into letting it go, having it drop back onto the concrete. 

Picking up the hat Tanjiro confirmed it was the one by the price tag still hanging off the side of the black fabric. Knowing he was in the right vicinity he called out for Swinub a few times, hoping the Pokémon would come to his voice. 

Carefully looking down the alleyways and side streets he passed, Tanjiro was getting more anxious with each dead-end he came across. 

Starting to pick up speed again as he went from a fast walk to jogging, he almost passed up an alley by accident, but skidded to a halt as he heard a scared squeak echo from behind. 

Doubling back to run into the alley, his relief at seeing Swinub was brief as the reason the Pokémon had squeaked out in fear was blocking Tanjiro’s path to them. 

A hissing purple and yellow big cat was stalking its way towards Swinub, cornering the little Pokémon against the brick wall that marked the end of the back alley. 

Noticing Tanjiro’s presence the cat turned towards him, growling from deep in its throat as it’s tail flicked violently back and forth. 

This Pokémon did not look friendly in the slightest, and to protect himself and Swinub he called out Torkoal. The heavy tortoise blowing out steam as it sensed the tension in the air. 

“Torkoal use ember!” Tanjiro ordered. 

The cat dodging away from the fiery bullets, and away from Swinub, just as he thought it would, giving him the chance to run over to pick up the shaking Pokémon. 

He heard brick being broken as he turned back to see dark pulses of energy ripping from the cat’s claws. Torkoal ducking his head back inside his shell to avoid the attack. 

Hissing and angry at being denied their prey the cat once again turned towards Swinub. 

Tanjiro felt the blood pounding in his ears as his instincts took over, pushing his feet to move before he even registered the claws scraping the spot he had been in moments before. 

Holding tight onto Swinub, he kicked out his back leg to knock a garbage can over, hoping to slow the Pokémon.

Running the few last feet to Torkoal he opened his mouth to order another command, but his throat constricted as he felt a wave of energy being thrown his way. Ducking down, he felt pieces of brick from the wall above rain onto his hair. 

This was beyond violent for any Pokémon he had met. Whose owner would train them this way? Why would they train them this way?

Knowing he had to be quick in his actions, he raised his head to move Torkoal into action. Seeing the purple cat out of his peripheral vision, he noted it was now only a few feet away. 

A loud growl started up. 

Claws hit pavement. 

“Torkoal-“

A snap of fingers. 

It echoed across the walls of the alley. 

All of a sudden the world was quiet. 

The resounding snap seemed to still ring in Tanjiro’s ears. 

The cat’s narrowed green eyes stared at them, but it’s posture was different from before. More refined. 

“Liepard. Return,” a smooth voice from the alleyway entrance ordered. 

The Pokémon returned to the black and yellow ball resting in the shadowed mans hand. It was hard to make out his features with the sun casting its rays from behind, but from under his hat there was no missing the displeased glow of red eyes. 

The weight of his stare as it passed over Tanjiro and the Pokémon was oppressive, sending a shiver down his spine despite the warm weather. 

“My apologies for Liepard,” he said with a tone that reasoned he was not sorry in the slightest, merely going through the formalities. “Sometimes they get a bit... bored, while I’m doing business.” 

Not knowing how to react to a stranger telling him he almost died because their Pokémon got bored, Tanjiro simply squeezed Swinub closer to their chest, giving a stiff nod. 

It was only when the man started to turn away, that Tanjiro suddenly found his voice again, feeling a need to try and remedy the situation the best he could. “You really shouldn’t let your Pokémon out by themselves if they are just going to harass others.” 

He couldn’t let the man go without admonishing him in some way. Just leaving with a quick apology wouldn’t stop this from happening again in the future to some other persons Pokémon. 

The piercing gaze was on him again, eyeing him from the side as he half turned to face the street. 

“I will keep that in mind.”

And with that, the man pulled a cellphone from his pocket and walked away as he brought it up to his ear, not sparing Tanjiro another glance. 

Tanjiro felt his blood heat up at the nonchalance the man had with this whole situation. Someone could have been seriously hurt, if not killed! 

Scrambling back to a standing position, he was about to run after the man when he saw Chuntaro flying into the alley chirping loudly. 

The frantic bird landed on the lid of a garbage can near him, hopping up and down with her little feet clicking on the metal. 

A second later he heard his sister’s voice yell, “She flew down there!” 

Taking a few shaky steps towards the alleyway entrance he was greeted with the sight of three worried faces. 

“Brother! I’m so glad you’re safe!” Nezuko ran up and hugged him, peeking up at him as she gave the debris and dust in his dark maroon hair a questioning look. 

“You hadn’t come back so I sent Chuntaro out to try and find you from the sky,” Zenitsu said as he wrung his hands together nervously. 

“You found Swinub! I knew I could count on you Tanjiro!” Inosuke yelled in his usual booming voice. 

Tanjiro only had a second to register, _wait he got my name right for once_, before he felt muscular arms wrap around his waist. 

His sister let out a squeak as Inosuke wrapped them both in a tight hug, slightly lifting them off the ground as he laughed. 

Swinub, squished in the middle of them all, let out a happy snort as it wiggled in excitement at being so close to everyone. 

Nezuko’s surprise led into amusement as she giggled at Inosuke’s enthusiasm, which in turn tugged a smile onto Tanjiro’s face. 

Setting them back on the ground Zenitsu ran over whining, “Waaaait, I want to hug Nezuko-chan too!” 

Laughing as she leaned over to give Zenitsu a short tight hug, the blond boy looked stunned with hearts in his eyes. 

Shaking his head fondly Tanjiro felt the tension from moments ago ease out of his body as the warmth of his family and friends surrounded him. He could still feel a ghost of the pressure from Inosuke’s arms around him. It had been nice... he had felt... safe. 

Turning back towards Inosuke with a smile he was surprised to find green eyes already on him. 

“Inosuke...?” He hesitantly asked, as the other boy reached out a hand towards his face. 

He could feel his cheeks heating up at the intent look on Inosuke’s face. _What is he doing? Why is he staring at me like that?_

“Tanjiro?” 

He had never heard Inosuke speak in such a soft and questioning voice before, it tickled at the edges of his heart. 

“Yes?” He hesitantly asked back. 

“What’s that shit you got all in your hair?”

“Huh?” Was all he got out before he felt a callused hand roughly shake back and forth through his hair, sending brick dust in a halo around him. Letting out a sneeze, Inosuke pulled his hand back. 

“There, I got most of it! You’re welcome!”

Tanjiro was positive his hair was a giant mess now, he could feel it sticking up in every direction. From in his arms Swinub let out a little sneeze as it got into his nostrils as well. 

“T-thanks...”

— — — — — — — — — —

After stopping at the Pokémon center to rest up their Pokémon, the gang was on their way to the Water Wheel gym to fight the new gym leader Giyu Tomioka, who had recently taken over after Urokodaki had retired. 

The gym sat at the edge of the river that ran through the middle of town, it’s clear flowing currents only being disturbed by the Pokémon that swan through it and the large wooden water wheel that was connected to the building, giving the gym its namesake. 

Approaching the doors to the entrance Tanjiro, for the hundredth time that hour, debated if he should tell his friends the whole story of what had happened earlier. At the time he had brushed it off, not wanting to worry them, he had swept it under the rug as it just being an upset Pokémon, but the feeling he had gotten from that man still hadn’t dissipated, in his gut he knew there was more to them than that. That Liepard had been vicious, intent on its prey like no ‘tamed’ Pokémon he had ever encountered. But going off of an ill feeling was hardly anything to make a fuss over, right? 

He was brought back to reality when Inosuke jabbed him in the ribs, much harder than he needed to, and realized they were already standing in front of the receptionist desk. 

Quickly bowing his head in apology, he looked back up to make eye contact with the girl he had seen earlier in the shop. 

Amusement glittered in her blue eyes, matching the color of the Frillish floating beside her. 

“No need to apologize, I was just saying you need to fill out this application form stating we aren’t held fiscally or legally responsible for any injuries that occur while in your gym battle.”

She reached over to pass a clipboard and pen to him with a pleasant smile. 

“Oh, thank you,” he nodded while looking down at the paper to see what needed filling out. The first several pages were filled with legal jargon that he quickly flipped through. 

He saw Inosuke and Zenitsu grab their respective papers, the latter looking sick to his stomach. 

“Hey Gengoro, fill this out for me,” Inosuke held out his clipboard expectantly. 

Tanjiro deflated at the usage of the wrong name, _he had gotten it right earlier! I thought Inosuke had finally remembered my name..._

Maybe he was just messing with him on purpose? 

“Inosuke you have to fill out your own paperwork.”

“I don’t know how to read or write,” he stated as if that were obvious. No shame to it, just saying it how it is. 

He could feel his eyes widen and mouth open slightly in shock. Really this should have been obvious if he put two and two together, but it had never crossed his mind before this moment. 

Zenitsu was giving Inosuke a look from the other side of them, clearly lowering his mental score of Inosuke’s intelligence. 

“H-hey that’s okay. I’ll help you fill it out, you just sign your name at the end okay? Do you know what kanji it’s spelled with?”

“What’s a kanji?”

“Never mind, I’ll do it,” Tanjiro waved it off. 

Filling out the forms they passed them back over the counter to the girl, who quickly glanced them over before waving her arm to the hallway to the right. 

“Sabito will show you the rest of the way, good luck!”

He was about to ask who that was when a young man with pink hair came out of the hallway, a small orange and brown fox scampering ahead of him, dragging its heavy tail on the ground. 

Sabito stopped in front of them giving a small bow, “If you are ready, you may follow me and Nickit.”

His lavender eyes narrowed as he took in their appearance, his gaze trailing up to where Swinub sat in its usual spot. Recognition seemed to spark across his face as his mouth formed an “o” shape. 

“You are those kids that ran past me in such a hurry earlier today. Truly my deepest apologizes for letting Swinub out the doorway, they are quite fast for having such short legs.”

Tanjiro tried to wave off his apology, “It’s okay really, no harm done.”

His mind flashed back to the incident in the alleyway, and he couldn’t fully suppress the wince that came with the memory. 

Not noticing Tanjiro’s moment of discomfort Sabito moved on, turning back towards the hallway he had come from, “In any case, I am glad you got your companion back. You will need your team at top form to defeat Giyu.” 

“Bring him on!” Inosuke yelled while following Sabito down the ocean colored hallway. The green and blue paints mixing into waves that overlapped and curled, becoming more stormy the closer they got to the end. 

Exiting the hallway, bright natural light poured down from the ceiling made of windows, into a large room containing an expansive pool. The clear blue water intermittently broken up by rocks and pillars sticking out into the dry air. Along the walls were simple metal bleachers for audience members to sit, most of which were empty save for a few grade school age looking children and an elderly couple. 

Glancing around the gymnasium for the gym leader, there didn’t seem to be anyone that looked ready to battle. Movement on one of the rocky landings of the pool caught his eye, but it was just a Psyduck going to hold its head in that species’ signature confused look. 

“Hey what’s the big deal! Where is he!?” Inosuke asked, his voice its usual volume, but the gyms high ceilings making him even louder. 

Tanjiro was curious as well as he turned to Sabito for answers. The man looking slightly annoyed, as he glared across the pool to the set of doors that were closed opposite to them. 

“I’ll be right back,” he told them with a pleasant smile, it was only after he turned away from them that he started muttering angrily under his breath. 

They watched as he disappeared through the other set of doors, the click as it shut behind him echoing off the walls. 

“Well this is awkward,” Zenitsu mumbled quietly. 

“Maybe they forgot they had open battles scheduled today?” Nezuko weakly tried to defend this Giyu person they hadn’t met yet. 

Most gyms have open battle times set up for a few hours every day, this is to allow trainers the opportunity to challenge the current gym leader in hopes of defeating them and winning a gym badge. It was a standard practice stated in all Pokémon trainer manuals. Tanjiro highly doubted the gym leader would forget something like that.

“He probably just had to take a shit or something,” Inosuke being ever helpful suggested. 

“Do you have to be so crude!?” Zenitsu pointed an accusing finger at Inosuke. 

“Yes.”

A few moments later the doors opened to reveal Sabito with who he assumed was Giyu. The young man had dark black haired tied off into a spiky ponytail, his outfit was a mismatched full body swimsuit, half red and half a green and yellow decorative pattern. An odd choice of clothing, but paired with a few belts and his serious expression it somehow didn’t come off as silly as it would if Tanjiro wore it. 

As the two got closer, he could make out the dull sheen of Giyu’s stormy blue eyes as he sized up Tanjiro and his friends. 

The man had an air of seriousness about him, emphasized by the frown marring his features that hadn’t let up the entire time he walked over to them. 

Putting up the palm of his hand in way of greeting, Giyu addressed the group.

“Ah. Sorry... I forgot I had some open battle time scheduled for today.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tune in next time for bullying Giyu hours ~


	4. Some Sound Advice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is always room for improvement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, three things to start off:  
1\. I didn't end up bullying Giyu as much as I said I would, so he was spared lol  
2\. Big shout out to [Rinner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinner/pseuds/Rinner) for the help with this chapter!! I got stuck with how to write the gym battle and they saved me ;-;  
3\. Happy Birthday to [emoedgelord](https://archiveofourown.org/users/emoedgelord/pseuds/emoedgelord) <3
> 
> (I wrote this inbetween classes so hopefully there aren't too many errors, but I wanted to get this out on time)

Tanjiro felt his hands go clammy as he walked up to the edge of the battlefield; it was his turn to battle Giyu and he was not feeling super confident about his chances of winning. 

He had watched Zenitsu barely scrape by, using his Pokémon’s type advantage to win, but Tanjiro did not have that advantage. His fire-type Pokémon were not a good match up with the water-type gym leader. 

Inosuke had lost on a technicality, aka he had jumped into the water arena as soon as Swinub started losing, making an attempt to join the fight. This had not surprised Tanjiro so much as disappointed him. 

Looking over to the audience benches he could still see water dripping off of Inosuke’s clothes, forming a puddle underneath him on the concrete floor. 

Tanjiro tried to get his head in the game as he eyed his surroundings; the water gym didn't provide a great deal of safe surface for Torkoal to stand on, and the few pillars and rocks that stuck out of the water weren’t big enough to allow much room for maneuvering. Wooper and Fletchling would definitely have the upper hand in this environment.

“... Alright,” Tanjiro said. “Fletchling, go!”

He threw the Great Ball into the air, and it burst open with a flash of light. Fletchling appeared, hovering in the air. She let out a high-pitched cry, and flew in a small circle above his head.

“Alright,” Giyu said. His face never changing. “I can match that.”

He threw out his own Pokéball, and a Prinplup appeared in the pool. 

“Prinplup,” he said. “Bubble Beam.”

The Pokémon dove under the water, then shot up from the surface like a torpedo, turning to face Tanjiro’s Fletchling.

“Fletching!” Tanjiro cried. “Use Quick Attack to dodge it!”

Baseball-sized bubble shot towards his Pokémon, and Fletching veered to avoid them. Fletchling was nimble, but Tanjiro knew she was brittle under that speed, and one solid hit could put them in real danger.

“While he’s still in the air, use Steel Wing!” Tanjiro said.

Fletching shot down towards the pool, her wings just brushing the water’s surface before she came back up. Her wings glowed white-hot, and they just managed to make contact with the back of Giyu’s Prinplup.

“Yes!” Tanjiro said. “Good job, Fletchling!”

Giyu’s face didn't move, and his Prinplup fell back into the water. The hit had injured it, but Prinplups were tough, and Tanjiro knew it would take more than that to take one of them down.

“Prinplup! Aerial Ace!” Giyu shouted.

It was too fast for Tanjiro to stop; before he could call out to Fletchling, Giyu’s Prinplup shot from the water, and its beak connected perfectly with Fletchling. The force of the hit sent her spiraling through the air, and she landed atop one of the rocky pillars sticking out from the water.

“Fletching!” Tanjiro said, worry in his voice. “Fletching, are you okay?!”

The little Pokémon staggered to her feet, clearly injured, but not ready to give up. “Quick, use Roost!” Tanjiro shouted. “You can make it!”

Fletchling hunkered down within her feathers. Tanjiro hoped that now that Fletchling was so far in the air, that it was safe from Prinplup’s attacks; however, Giyu had accounted for this, too.

“Eagle eye, Prinplup,” he said. “Use Scald!”

The Pokémon inhaled, and a jet of steaming hot water shot from its beak. In spite of the distance, it hit Fletchling head-on, sending the Pokémon off the pillar.

Tanjiro cried out in shock and launched himself forward, splashing into the deep end of the pool. His outstretched hands just managed to catch the tiny, feathered body, and he struggled back to the shallow end of the pool.

“It’s okay, Fletchling,” he said, pulling out the Pokéball. “You did great, really great. Get some rest.”

Fletchling disappeared within the white light. From his bag, Tanjiro pulled out another Pokéball, and threw it up into the air.

“Wooper!” he said. “Go get ‘em!”

Wooper landed in the water; she looked delighted to be in back in her natural environment, and turned around to give Tanjiro a goofy smile.

“Start with Headbutt!” Tanjiro said encouragingly.

Wooper and Prinplup both disappeared under the water. He could see the distorted forms of the two Pokémon weaving and dodging each other’s attacks from below the surface, but with no solid way to tell exactly what was happening, Tanjiro could only hold his breath and trust Wooper to make the right move.

Suddenly, there was a loud splash, and Prinplup was sent spinning out of the water.

“YES, Wooper!” Tanjiro said. “Great job!”

“Prinplup, use Fury Attack!” Giyu said. “Stay under the water!”

Prinplup’s first attack connected, sending it and Wooper back under the surface. A feeling of dread filled Tanjiro as he watched the second and third attacks connect; the fourth missed, however, and Wooper surfaced. She looked hurt, but not as badly as Fletchling had been.

“It’s alright!” Tanjrio said. “Quick, use Muddy Water to cloud the pool, then hit again with Headbutt, as hard as you can!”

Wooper dove back under the water and disappeared, as a cloud of dirty brown water filled the center of the pool. Both of the Pokémon were obscured from vision until Prinplup was shot from the water again.

Tanjiro let out a whoop as Prinplup was declared no longer able to fight; it returned to its trainer’s ball, and Giyu sized him up; his expression still had not changed.

“... Better than I expected,” he said. Before Tanjiro could respond, he threw another Pokéball into the air. “Dewott!”

The Discipline Pokémon dove through the water, circling back to its trainer before bobbing with its head just above the water.

“Dewott, use Razor Shell!”

“Wooper, look out!” Tanjiro said.

The first shell hit it’s target, throwing Wooper off-balance, but the second one missed, giving Tanjiro’s Pokémon the few seconds she needed to recover.

“Wooper,” he said, “use Aqua Tail!”

The Pokémon sent a stream of water spinning at Dewott; it hit its target, sending waves crashing through the pool, and knocking Dewott into one of the rocks.

“Good job!” Tanjiro encouraged, trying to retrieve his balance after the waves almost knocked him over. “Now, Headbutt again!”

Wooper aimed for the opposing Pokémon, but was just a second too slow; Dewott dodged out of the way, and Wooper crashed head-first into the rock.

“Wooper!” Tanjiro cried, as the Pokémon floated in the water. He hit the button in the middle of the Pokéball, and Wooper returned to him in a flash.

“Good job,” he said to the ball. “I’ll have you fixed up in no time.”

Tanjiro turned back to face his opponent. This was exactly the situation he’d hoped to avoid; Torkoal would be at a massive disadvantage in this environment, but there was no giving up now.

“Okay, Torkoal,” he said. “Give it your all!”

Torkoal appeared on one of the rocks in the pool. Giyu looked from the Pokémon, back to Tanjiro.

“Interesting,” he said. “We’ll see how it works out for you. Dewott, Aqua Jet!”

“Torkoal, brace yourself!”

Torkoal ducked inside his shell. The Aqua Jet hit perfectly and turned to steam against Torkoal’s hot shell.

“Now, Dewott, tackle!”

Giyu’s plan was to knock him off. An idea occurred to Tanjiro, and he cried out: “Torkoal, quickly, use Flamethrower on the water, then Headbutt!”

A jet of flame shot out of Torkoal’s mouth, hitting the water and causing a cloud of steam to explode in the gym. Tanjiro couldn’t see the water in front of him, let alone his Pokémon, but the sound of Dewott crying out in surprise let him know his plan had worked.

The steam cleared, and Dewott was swimming in circles around Torkoal’s rock, waiting for an opportunity.

“Don’t take that, Dewott,” Giyu said. “Get your Revenge.”

Orange light surrounded Dewott’s body, glowing from beneath the surface of the water. It swam faster, creating a tiny whirlpool around the rock, until finally, it shot out in a magnificent corkscrew of water.

“Torkoal!” he cried.

Dewott struck, its paw connecting with Torkoal’s shell, sending him spinning into the water. The Pokémon sank like a rock, its body being much too heavy to stay afloat. Tanjiro called him back with a cry of despair; he had lost.

——————————-

“It’s okay Tanjiro, that was just a bad matchup,” Zenitsu tried to cheer him up, giving him a pat on the back. “You can always try again, once you catch new Pokémon that aren’t weak to water.”

“The only reason you won is because of your Pokémon,” Inosuke grumbled at Zenitsu, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“That’s how it woRKS,” Zenitsu flung his arms out in irritation. “Your Pokémon are supposed to fight the battle!” 

Moving faster than a Joltik, Inosuke was suddenly behind Zenitsu, his arm wrapping around his neck in a chokehold, leaving the blond boy flailing to escape. 

“Maybe you should learn how to fight too!” Inosuke taunted just as Zenitsu bit down on his arm, and before Tanjiro knew it the two were on the floor scuffling. Swinub and Togedemaru watching on from their spot a few feet away. 

Knowing the two of them were going to go at it until someone was unconscious, or crying (Zenitsu), Tanjiro steeled himself to step in, but was stopped as he heard a low voice behind him. 

“Type advantage isn’t what determines a winner.”

He turned and made eye contact with the gym leader who was intently staring him down, standing at the edge of the hallway to the arena. 

“I-I’m sorry what was that?” Tanjiro asked. 

This time Giyu spoke louder, “Type advantage isn’t what determines a winner. You must have a strong desire to win! No frail resolutions!”

The way those words were spoken had him straightening his spine out of fear. He wasn’t sure what he had done to have that serious gaze boring into him, but he wasn’t about to voice his uncertainties when the intimating man now walking towards him. 

Tanjiro watched as the gym leader came to a stop before him, his nerves alight to the point he felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of his face. He twitched as Giyu lifted his hand as if to touch Tanjiro’s shoulder, but then he seemed to second guess himself, and instead awkwardly let the appendage swing back down to his side. 

“You battled well—“ Tanjiro relaxed slightly at that comment “—but you lack proper technique. If you really expect to come into a water-type gym you shouldn’t be relying on fire-based attacks. Even fire-type Pokémon can learn useful move sets to counter their weaknesses.”

The man paused in his lecture, so Tanjiro nodded in understanding, even though he wasn’t quite sure where this conversation was going. 

Seemingly satisfied with Tanjiro’s reaction, Giyu held out his hand expectantly, “Your Pokédex please.” 

“Oh! Um, sure!” Tanjiro patted down a couple of his pockets, frantically trying to remember which one he had put it in, until he felt it clipped to his belt. Feeling slightly embarrassed for no good reason, he unclipped the device and held it out to the man. In the background his brain registered that he could no longer hear his friends’ scuffle, so he assumed it was over, and that Nezuko had dealt with them, or that one of them was dead... he hoped it was the former. 

Giyu was silent as he took the offered device and punched a few things in with his thumbs, not looking up until he was ready to hand it back.

Tanjiro blinked wide eyes down at the screen, the map app was pulled up with an address typed in, and its’ blue marker for the destination glowing. 

“I would suggest going to the Blooming Flame Gym next, I feel you could learn much there.” 

——————————-

Excitement for their end goal was the only thing that kept his feet going as they walked along the bare dirt road, with nothing to see for miles in either direction, just dirt, grass, a few trees, more grass, and even more dirt. 

The sun beat relentlessly down on them, making Tanjiro’s hair feel like it was on fire, the only relief being the occasional cloud passing overhead to provide temporary relief. 

“Ugh can we take a break pleaseee,” Zenitsu asked, bending over to lean on his knees. “The sun is too hot and my feet are killing me!”

“Yeah I wouldn’t mind a break either, my feet are getting sore,” Nezuko complained, hopping cutely between her two feet. 

Magically rejuvenated with energy, Zenitsu sprang to Nezuko’s side, a dopey smile on his face, “It’s okay Nezuko-chan! I can carry you~” 

“Didn’t you just say your feet hurt?” Tanjiro raised a skeptical eyebrow. 

Zenitsu turned to hiss at Tanjiro, “It doesn’t matter, this is the gentlemanly thing to do,” he finished by placing his hand on his own chest. 

“What’s that even supposed to mean? Being a gentleman?” Inosuke ground out the question, wrinkling his nose like he always seemed to do when not understanding something. 

Zenitsu hummed and raised his hand to his chin in thought, which after a moment he tossed to the side as he flippantly explained, “The opposite of you.” 

Tanjiro pinched the bridge of his nose as he knew what was coming next. In 3...2...1...

“WHAT WAS THAT?!”

“You heard me. A gentleman has manners, unlike you. A gentleman is always—“

“I CAN OUT GENTLEMAN YOU ANYDAY! WATCH THIS!”

Tanjiro didn’t know what he was expecting Inosuke to do in an effort to prove he was a gentleman, but he certainly wasn’t expecting to be suddenly lifted off the ground. He let out a small squeak as he was lifted above the other boys' head, legs kicking out automatically as they dangled in the air. _ Wow he’s really strong._

“Inosuke!” Tanjiro yelled, while trying to put an admonishing tone to his voice.

“Quiet Tantaro I’m trying to prove a point.”

Tanjiro let out a sigh as he resigned himself to his fate. 

Below him, Inosuke and Zenitsu stared each other down, neither breaking eye contact, until Zenitsu suddenly crouched down onto one knee. Turning his head to face Nezuko, he calmly said, “Nezuko hop on.” 

“Oh, well I... um...” Nezuko trailed off, obviously not knowing where to go with her words. Looking up at her brother for help, he could do little more than shrug in acceptance of their situation. 

She stepped forward to climb on, a pinch of worry between her brows. “You let me know when you get too tired okay?”

“Of course!” Zenitsu exclaimed, the dopey smile from before returning to his face. 

Tanjiro felt himself being lowered slightly, until he was at eye level with Inosuke, one arm hooked under his knees and the other behind his back. He felt his face heating up at how embarrassing his position was, even though Inosuke hardly seemed bothered by it. 

“You’re not going to put me down are you?”

“Nope. Not until I prove I’m the better gentleman.”

“Can I at least be carried on your back instead?” He tried to bargain. Anything was better than his current position. 

Inosuke seemed to think about this for a moment before grumbling in agreement. 

And that was how they spent the next mile or so trudging along, until Zenitsu finally fell to his knees after a very valiant effort. He didn’t seem to mind losing so much though as Nezuko fretted over him, giving him a sip of water from her pink Butterfree patterned canteen. 

——————————-

It took them nearly a week before they saw a sign indicating that the Blooming Flame gym was only 5 miles away from their location, and Tanjiro couldn't help but think they should invest in some bicycles to speed up their journeying. 

The sun was overhead at this point so they decided to set up a fire beside the river and eat lunch before they would have to make the last 5 mile trek.

Inosuke was on stick gathering duty this time (which he hated), and Zenitsu had excused himself to do man business. So it was just Nezuko and him as they started to unpack the supploes they would need from their bags. 

It was a quiet business and Tanjiro occupied himself by humming a tune as he went through the spices they still had left for seasoning.

“What was that noise?” Nezuko asked, breaking Tanjiro out of his tune. She paused with her hands in her backpack, as she had been rummaging to try and find the baking pan. 

“What noise?” Tanjiro asked, turning towards his sister. 

“It sounded like it came from that direction,” she pointed into the forest to the east, unsurety written on her face. 

Turning his head to the side, he strained his ears to try and pick up the sound she was hearing.

At first, all he heard was the river, and the rustle of leaves, but underneath those sounds, he could just make out— 

“There!” Nezuko exclaimed, quickly rising to her feet and dashing off. 

“Ah! Nezuko wait!”

On instinct, he ran after her, and it didn’t take more than a few long strides before he could start to hear the sound clearer. It was definitely someone in distress. 

In front of him Nezuko let out a gasp, suddenly coming to a stop, and he barely managed to avoid colliding right into his sister as he dug the heels of his shoes into the dirt. 

He looked up to follow her horrified gaze, and saw a massive Feraligatr clawing at a tree, it’s sharp claws ripping the bark clean off as shreds of it fell to the ground below. A muddy trail was left to show where it had emerged from the river a few feet behind its towering form. 

Its gaping mouth, filled with rows of pointy teeth glistened in the sunlight, as it snapped at its prey. Said prey being a young boy, maybe a few years younger than himself, clinging onto a branch for dear life. 

“Don’t worry we’ll help you!” Nezuko shouted, which Tanjiro mentally berated her for, they didn’t want the Pokémon to turn its attention to them just yet! 

At the sound of her voice, the boy looked up with bright tear-filled eyes, parts of his golden red-tipped hair sticking to the side of his sweating face. 

“Y-you should stay bac-back—“ the boy tried to warn with a wobbly voice. “It’s too dangerous!” 

Tanjiro felt his heart go out to him, they were obviously trying to put up a brave front, but between the tears and nonstop shaking, it wasn’t a very good fib. 

The siblings exchanged a nod before grabbing the Pokéballs from their respective belts and calling out their Pokémon. 

“Swablu! Stufful! I choose you!”

“Wooper! Fletchling! I choose you!”

“Swablu try and draw its attention away from the boy!” 

The bird gave a confirmation chirp before flying over to dive at the reptile Pokémon. 

“Fletchling you help out too,” Tanjiro ordered. 

After a few swooping dives from both birds, the Feraligatr started to get frustrated, swinging at them while taking steps further from the tree. It’s long jaw snapping at empty air every time it missed its target. 

Once it was out in the open more, Wooper and Stufful joined the fray, with a rapid water gun to the face and sharp tackle to the hind-leg. 

Feraligatr let out a guttural sound deep in its throat as it whipped its tail at the surrounding Pokémon, whacking both Stufful and Wooper into the river with a splash. 

Wooper quickly recovered and shot another water gun move from her position in the river. 

While the Pokémon was distracted, Tanjiro and Nezuko quietly snuck between the bushes to the side of the tree not in Feraligatr’s line of sight. 

“Okay quickly, climb down,” Tanjiro called up to the boy. 

Giving a quaky nod, the golden-haired boy gave one last look at the distracted Pokémon before starting to climb down. He quickly ran out of footholds halfway down and froze in uncertainty. 

“It’s okay, jump, I’ll help to steady you,” Tanjiro encouraged. 

Eyeing the drop, the boy hesitantly let go and jumped down, stumbling into Tanjiro as he lost his balance. Nezuko was at his side in an instant to provide more support. 

“Okay we need to get out of here now,” Tanjiro started to lead them back through the bushes when the boy let out an objection.

“Wait! I had dropped my Pokéball earlier, I can’t just leave Ember behind,” they said while starting to look in the tall grass sprouting up in uneven patches beside the tree. 

“They’ll be okay, we can come back for them later,” Tanjiro tried to reason, with a growing sense of urgency underlining his words. “They'll be safe inside their Pokéball.”

“I can’t— I won’t—“ The boy choked out, being unable to finish his thought as his trembling hands pushed aside more grass. 

“Our Pokémon won’t be able to hold the Feraligatr off for long,” Tanjiro warned while he craned his neck to try and get a look at where he had last seen the Pokémon fighting. Alarm bells rang inside Tanjiro’s head once he realized he no longer saw them. 

“Where did...?” He trailed off as he heard panicked chirping come from the woods to his left, farther away from the river. 

Out of nowhere, Swablu suddenly flew right at them, causing his heart to skip a beat as their cotton-like wings just barely grazed his face. The bluebird landed in Nezuko’s waiting arms, as it chirped madly at them, pieces of white fluff missing on their right-wing. 

A loud snarl and thump against a solid tree trunk was all the warning they got before the Feraligatr entered their line of sight. It’s yellow eyes taking them in, waiting for them to make the first move. 

The three of them slowly inched backward, not daring to take their eyes off the large reptile. 

It was Tanjiro who accidentally broke the tension as he stepped on a dry twig with a loud snap, triggering a flurry of movement from them all. 

Running as fast as they could, they sprinted in the opposite direction, and out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Fletchling diving down to let out a close-range Razor Wind attack. 

Tanjiro knew that wouldn’t slow down the Pokémon, if anything he felt the Feraligatr had gotten so closer, so he didn’t pause his movements for an even second. But it was no use, they were losing ground and he could already imagine those long teeth ripping at his skin. 

It was then a flashing beam of energy passed by, he could feel the heat of it, and the power behind it was enough to whip his hair and clothes haphazardly. 

Risking a glance behind him, he saw the beam make contact with the Feraligatr head-on, sending it flying backward. They all came to a halt at the loud _boom_ of the reptile hitting the ground hard, sending dust and leaves flying into the air around it. 

“Is everyone unharmed!” A loud voice echoed down to them, sounding more like a statement than a question. 

There was a fluttering sound as a man in a cape jumped down from an overhead tree, his golden eyes piercing as he took them in. An Arcanine followed from several paces behind on the forest floor, coming up to stand beside its master.

The air of confidence surrounding the man was rivaled only by the boldness of his looks, which now that Tanjiro looked closely was awfully similar to....

“Big brother!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, going ahead that there will be slight manga spoilers. Nothing directly stated, but parallels and hints. So if you haven't read the manga and wanna avoid that... you might wanna stop here, or go read the manga lol 
> 
> Till next time!


End file.
